


The smile when you tore me apart

by chancellorxofxtrash



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Attempted Murder, Canon-Typical Violence, Euthanasia discussion, M/M, Multi, Someone gets stabbed, VRAINS Rarepair Event 2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-05
Updated: 2020-01-05
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:27:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22127116
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chancellorxofxtrash/pseuds/chancellorxofxtrash
Summary: In Blood Shepherd's shadow, there is a new bounty hunter. One who is laser focused on destroying the Ignis. At least, laser focused on destroying Windy.But when they figure out who it is, Ryoken makes a decision that changes the way their story unfolds.
Relationships: Revolver | Kougami Ryouken/Windy, Revolver | Kougami Ryouken/Windy's Origin
Comments: 8
Kudos: 17
Collections: VRAINS Rarepairs 2019!





	The smile when you tore me apart

**Author's Note:**

> Written for VRAINS Rarepair Week 2019
> 
> Day 7: Free day

Storm Reaper first appeared in Blood Shepherd’s shadow. He would trail behind him - a much smaller figure, with a black and green outfit. Heavy boots, and a long cape, and a hat with a huge brim - and a dark mask that covered his face. He was a figure that was hard to miss, and even harder to figure out what his deal was.

Blood Shepherd did not usually work together with others, after all. At least not  _ really.  _ Blood Shepherd was mostly a lone wolf, who only worked with others as long as he could use them, as Ghost Girl had pointed that out.

And yet, he had a protege. Or something like that.

And seemed just as intent and focused on fighting the Ignis as his mentor was.

He ended up challenging Blue Maiden - obviously aiming to capture Aqua, forcing her and her new deck into a standoff.

“There is something about him…” Aqua said, unsure. “Something I can’t place.”

“What do you mean? Do you… sense something?”

“...hard to sense anything when he doesn’t say anything outside of what card he is playing. I know he was honest about wanting to destroy me.”

“I will not allow that.”

Aoi’s promise was firm, as she drew for her next turn.

Storm Reaper had a solid deck from Mecha Phantom Beast cards, and could play them extremely well. He was obviously not an opponent to be underestimated.

If it wouldn’t have been for her last lucky draw, Aoi was not sure she could have won.

“Battle! Marincess Marbled Rock attacks you directly!”

Marbled Rock’s claws hit Strom Reaper’s body - breaking the mask in half, making it fly away.

The first thing Aoi noticed when Storm Reaper looked up, was the  _ hatred  _ that was in his eye.

Eye. Singular. One of his eyes were covered with an eyepatch, and he was gritting his teeth, and there was  _ hatred _ on his face.

Then he reached out his hand - and a scythe materialized out of thin air.

And he took a swing towards Aoi with that - Aoi heard Aqua call out for her, and she tried to lean back, the blade just barely missing her.

“What are you doing?!”

“I’m getting done what I came here for. One way or another.”

Storm Reaper was hissing, as he twirled his scythe again - and Aoi heard Ghost Girl’s voice through her duel disk.

_ Log out, Blue Maiden! Now! _

So she did.

Which meant the blade of the scythe went through the spot where she just had been, two seconds ago.

~*~

Ryoken was watching the duel.

After all, Blood Shepherd was already trouble - they had this uneasy alliance now with Playmaker and his allies, but Blood Shepherd was a wild card. And now there was a new unidentified factor in this, which just caused even more problems.

He needed to know who Storm Reaper was.

Thankfully Blue Maiden was skilled enough to pull off a victory against him, and shatter his mask, and…

“...that’s not possible.”

He felt Spectre’s eyes on him, questioning, and Ryoken gritted his teeth.

“What do you mean?”

“...I need to look into something. Come on, let’s go.”

Then they also logged out.

~*~

They looked into every single Lost Incident victim, locating them. Spectre, Playmaker and Soulburner were accounted for. One kidnapped by the Light Ignis. One in a coma, also by the Light Ignis.

And the sixth one…

The sixth one suffered a serious injury. An AI-driven car hit him with full speed, slamming him to the side of a building. Then the car caught on fire.

There were no official news about his well-being, but everyone knew he was young, so it would not be surprising to keep it down that a teenager was dead.

Families and secrecy, after all.

But assumptions weren’t working anymore. Either they had an imposter on their hands, or…

Or their assumptions were wrong.

So Ryoken looked into it, and the more he looked into it, the more he felt the dread rise in his stomach.

“Oh my…” Spectre hummed, also looking into the files Ryoken was hacking into. “That would certainly explain his hatred.”

“I need to look into the simulations again,” Ryoken said, an idle thought forming in the back of his mind.

This situation needed to be dealt with.

Even if it made things a lot more complicated.

~*~

Ryoken didn’t have to look for a long time. Storm Reaper was laser-focused on finding one enemy in particular - and he was obviously like a hunting dog on a fresh scent, so soon, he was locked in a duel again.

And apparently he found his prey.

The Wind Ignis.

His mask was back on his face, as he kept attacking the Wind Ignis, with much bigger intensity than when he duelled Blue Maiden, barely letting the Wind Ignis breathe. His attacks were vicious and controlled, and the Wind Ignis had to go on the defensive.

“Honestly the way you attack me, I would say you have a grudge against me,” The Wind Ignis whistled. “Do you? Or are you just that broke that you really want the bounty money from SOL Tech?”

Storm Reaper let out a dark laugh.

“You really want to know the truth, Ignis? Very well. Look into the face of the one who is going to destroy you.”

He threw his mask away.

And the Wind Ignis laughed, doubling over.

“Ooooh, so it’s you. I thought the car flattened you enough! Oh well. This just means I get to kill you again.”

And Storm Reaper - the Wind Ignis’ origin smiled darkly.

“That time you didn’t give me a fighting chance. This time your mistake is that I  _ can  _ fight.”

“It doesn’t matter,” The Wind Ignis shrugged. “Bahamut Bomber attacks Blackfalcon! You came back for  _ nothing.” _

“You think?” Storm Reaper raised his eyebrows. “I activate my skill.”

Storm Reaper made his scythe materialize again, spinning it around.

“Fear the Reaper. Once a duel I can banish a monster that is currently being attacked, which ends the battle immediately.”

“...what?”

Storm Reaper spun around, slashing through Blackfalcon with his scythe - and it made the monster disappear.

“In addition,” Storm Reaper continued. “I recover 200 LP for every level that the sacrificed monster had. Blackfalcon was level 4 - so I recover 800 LP.”

“Oh come on! That is just an unfair skill! Why would you do that?”

“I told you Wind Ignis,” Storm Reaper’s voice was cold. “This is the face of the one who is gonna destroy you. Your battle phase is over. Are you going to end your turn, and accept your demise?”

~*~

“He didn’t activate his skill against Blue Maiden,” Spectre pointed it out.

“He wanted to keep his cards close to his chest,” Ryoken said, eyes fixed on Storm Reaper. “He wanted to take the Wind Ignis off-guard with his skill. So losing to Blue Maiden was not as much as a tragedy - especially as he was willing to destroy the Water Ignis either way, despite losing.”

“But this one, he doesn’t want to lose.”

“No,” Ryoken agreed. “This one is personal. He wants to see the Wind Ignis suffer.”

“And can one blame him for that?”

“No. No we can’t.”

Storm Reaper’s final attack brought the Wind Ignis’ LP down to zero, and Ryoken stood up to the edge of the building.

Waiting.

“I told you,” Storm Reaper was grinning, his single eye burning with hatred. “I told you I will take you down.”

“Wait--- wait, c’mon--”

Storm Reaper raised his scythe.

And Ryoken immediately at that point let the program waiting in his duel disk go.

The program took the form of a wind tunnel, reaching out to the Wind Ignis, and pulling him towards Ryoken’s duel disk.

The Wind Ignis screamed, Storm Reaper’s glare turned towards Ryoken, and he just stood there, unflinching.

“Revolver,” Storm Reaper growled. “How  _ dare  _ you intervene? Don’t you want the Ignis dead?”

“I do,” Ryoken said simply.

“Then what? Can’t stand idle while someone else does it for you?! Want all of it for yourself? I have more right to kill him than you do!”

“I am not disputing that either,” Ryoken replied. “But I’m going to be reasonable about getting rid of the Ignis. I won’t delete an asset we can use against the Light Ignis.”

“Are you an idiot?” Storm Reaper hissed. “He is _on the_ _side_ of the Light Ignis.”

Ryoken smirked.

And then just logged out from Link VRAINS.

~*~

There was no sign in the simulations of the Wind Ignis being incompatible with humans.

In the simulations he always flourished. There was a very good chance of him getting along with humans just fine.

So what went wrong?

Obviously it was easy to track down the answer to that.

The thing with programs - they can be rewritten. Easier than people can be.

Which meant that it could also be reversed.

And if someone, like Ryoken and the other Knights knew the Ignis program quite well, they could figure out how to reverse what the Light Ignis had done to the Wind Ignis.

“Why would you do this? You could have just let him kill me and get away with it. Or kill me yourself after taking me. Instead now you keep me here, all locked up. Why would you? What are your plans? Do you want to torture me? Ask me about Lightning’s plans? Well joke’s on you he didn’t tell me a whole lot. Apart from what you already knew. So really there is no point to me being here is there?”

In Ryoken’s old duel disk there was an occupant. A very whiny, complaining, one-eyed green gremlin occupant.

That said, his one eye was purple now.

He was still wearing an eyepatch, and wrapped in bandages. All Ryoken did was to reverse what Lightning did to him, after all, not heal him.

“You can still be useful.”

“That’s grand of you, by the way. Thinking you can keep me hostage and force me to fight Lightning while you still plan on killing me afterwards. Why should I help  _ you?” _

“Three reasons,” Ryoken found himself saying. “One: you are angry at the Light Ignis so you would fight against him either way. Two: if you don’t, you are just going to die right now. If you cooperate, you have a chance of extending your life. Three: the presence of Storm Reaper bugs you.”

The Wind Ignis basically deflated upon hearing his words.

“I hate you.”

“Likewise.”

“...I really thought he died,” The Wind Ignis said, hesitating. “I remember… anyway. I thought he died. It… the car was very fast, you know.”

Ryoken sighed, as he typed a little, making a report show up on screen, and then allowed the Wind Ignis to process the data.

“...oh.  _ Oh.  _ Okay. Wow. I guess this kind of explains that… wow.”

“Yeah,” Ryoken nodded. “Storm Reaper basically can only exist in the network now. No wonder he wants you gone.”

He looked at the Wind Ignis from the corner of his eye, and he almost looked… dejected.

~*~

“Where is he?! Why would you take him away? I  _ won,  _ therefore I had the  _ right  _ to kill him! That was the deal!”

“And if I recall your deal with Blue Maiden was that if she won, you would let her and the Water Ignis go, and you still tried to harm them. You are hardly fit to complain about people disregarding the results of your duels.”

Storm Reaper had discarded his mask now that his identity was revealed to his primary target as well - which meant now his  _ death glare _ was not hidden at all.

A single eyepatch did nothing to mellow it out, at all.

“The Light Ignis took away my mentor,” Storm Reaper hissed. “The  _ least _ you can do, is to hand the Wind Ignis over to me.”

“The Wind Ignis might tip the scales over to our favour,” Ryoken said bluntly, looking at Storm Reaper. “I also want the Wind Ignis dead, but I am not stupid to throw away an asset, just because I don’t like it. How about you?”

“If you think I will be stupid enough to---”

“Your mentor refused to work with us, and look where it got him,” Ryoken’s words were sharp, and Storm Reaper recoiled. “Are you going to repeat his mistake?”

~*~

“He said yes? He actually said yes? That’s a plot twist. I think it’s just a fake-out. He will want to stab me again. And possibly stab you too. Stab us both. He will make us into kebab. I don’t know about you but I don’t want to be on the same kebab as you. I don’t want to be kebab, period.”

The Wind Ignis was pouting, sitting still in the duel disk, basically fuming.

“Are you quite done?”

“No! What do you expect me to do, Revolver? This is a recipe for disaster.”

“He won’t stab us. He is reasonable enough to wait until the Light Ignis is defeated to stab us.”

“Well, it is that much better! Thank you! So are you gonna unlock me from the duel disk and let me make a new Echo, or…”

“No.”

“...huh?”

Ryoken reached out, attaching the duel disk to his hand.

“I’m not stupid enough to let you out of my sight.”

“Okay you really just want to get skewered by Storm Reaper. Leave me out of it.”

“He wants to skewer you more.”

“I bet it’s because he doesn’t yet know the Hanoi was responsible for taking him. Does he know? Did anyone take the time to update him on that?”

Ryoken was silent.

The Wind Ignis laughed out loud.

“That is gonna be a blast when he founds out, honestly. You know what, fine, Revolver. I’m willing to team up with you. And be kebab with you together.”

“How poetic. Like you have a choice.”

The Wind Ignis giggled, his one purple eye narrowing a bit - it was almost like he grinned, which was impressive, without a mouth.

“Does this mean you will ditch your dragons and use my deck? My deck is great you kno---”

“No.”

“Awwww. You are the worst, Revolver. Seriously the worst,” The Wind Ignis pouted. “My deck deserves better.”

“You can use it for yourself once our job is done.”

“I thought you want to kill me once my job is done.”

“I do.”

“You make no sense, Revolver!”

Ryoken ignored the Wind Ignis’ complaining, and just logged in.

Time to end this.

~*~

It wasn’t easy. It wasn’t anywhere near easy, and most of them got erased by the Light Ignis’ team one way or another, and Ryoken was standing on a field of flowers, with the Wind Ignis on his arm.

Was not the way he wanted to go out, needless to say.

But in the end, they all came back, so… that’s all that mattered right? The Light Ignis got stopped, and the other Ignis claimed they are going to look after him and figure everything out about what went wrong.

“You didn’t say anything about it.”

Ryoken sat down, setting the duel disk down to his desk, looking at the Wind Ignis, who was crossing his arms in front of his chest.

“I don’t like it. I am still not sure I can trust any of you. Least of all him. He already reprogrammed you once, and tried to do it to two other Ignis.”

“You don’t need to remind me of that, I am perfectly aware, thank you. So what now? Gonna kill me? The others won’t be happy about it. And if they won’t be happy, neither will their partners. And I’m not an idiot.”

“Could have fooled me.”

“Shut up, Revolver, you know what I mean. You don’t want to fight with Playmaker and his merry band of good samaritans either.”

“They are aware that our alliance was merely temporary.”

“Yea, yea. Big talk. Still ain’t killing me, are you, Revolver?”

Ryoken glanced at the Wind Ignis, and he looked annoyingly smug.

Then pressed a few buttons on his computer.

“Because of your cooperation, I think I can give you a little bit of a head start.”

“Awww, look at you! You care! You gonna miss me, Revolver, admit it~”

“The headstart you get is one minute.”

“Wha--?”

“You already wasted twenty seconds.”

Then the Wind Ignis yelped, and disappeared into his duel disk, and Ryoken couldn’t help but to smirk.

(Even when the one minute was up, he did not make a move.)

~*~

All things considered, he probably should have went and hunted the Wind Ignis done either way.

Not because he was acting up, no - he and the other Ignis were behaving, actually. Even the Light Ignis seemed to be taken care of - Ryoken had no idea how or why but as long as it seemed to be working, he was willing to leave them be.

It doesn’t mean he will  _ trust  _ them, no. But there was a fragile sense of peace now, that Revolver was willing to wait and see what was going to happen. He will keep his eyes open and willing to strike whenever any of the Ignis would be acting against humanity again.

No. The reason why Ryoken thought he should have killed the Wind Ignis was that he was  _ not leaving him alone.  _

For some reason as soon as the Wind Ignis realised that Ryoken wasn’t  _ actually  _ hunting him, he took that as an invitation to come back and keep bothering Ryoken. Entering and exiting his duel disk all that he liked, or popping up in his computer, generally making a nuisance of himself. As per usual.

“Nobody invited you.”

“Ah, but you aren’t sending me away.”

“I am. Repeatedly. Told you over and over again to go away, and leave me alone.”

The Wind Ignis squished his eye in an almost-grin, leaning back on Ryoken’s duel disk, with a smug expression - nobody should be able to look that smug, with the limited body parts that an Ignis can have. Especially as the Wind Ignis had one less eye.

“Awww. You would miss me though!”

“Hardly. I would be allowed to have a little peace and quiet.”

“And be bored out of your mind. What is the fun in that? C’mon, I’m great company.”

“You are the worst company.”

“Nah,  _ you  _ are the worst company. I’m just here to entertain you. Who else puts up with you? Only a limited number of people. You should thank me, really.”

“If I am that bad of a company, why are you still here?”

The Wind Ignis’ eye got squished again - in that same expression of a  _ grin. _

“Because it’s fun to see you annoyed, duh! Of course. Look at you, Revolver! All frowny and stuff. It’s fun--- OW. Don’t do that!”

“What?” Ryoken smirked, after pulling on the tendril on the Wind Ignis’ head. “Are you the only one who is allowed to have fun with this arrangement, then?”

“You are literally the worst, Revolver.”

“Says you.”

“One day I won’t come back,” The Wind Ignis said, fuming. “And then you will miss me! And you will realise what did you lose, but it will be too late.”

“Sorry, I think I will be too busy celebrating.”

Ryoken did not actually realise when did he start smiling every time when the little green nuisance showed up.

Not that he would admit it either way.

And either way… there  _ was _ a tentative, fragile sense of peace.

But there was still one factor that they could not ignore.

~*~

“Revolver.”

Storm Reaper was absent since the fight against the Light Ignis ended, and they didn’t find any news of him. Ryoken knew he could not leave the network, but apparently either he, or Blood Shepherd managed to figure out a way to keep his presence hidden away even from the Hanoi’s scans.

But now he was back, and Ryoken turned around and looked at him.

Then just reached to his duel disk, pressing a button on the side, quietly activating a program.

_ Just in case. _

“When were you going to tell me, Revolver?” Storm Reaper’s voice was full of venom.

Ryoken didn’t need to ask what, and he didn’t reply either, so Storm Reaper just stepped closer, his uncovered eye burning with hatred as well.

“When were you going to tell me that it was  _ you  _ who ruined my life?”

~*~

It was the Light Ignis who told him, obviously. Back when they were fighting him, he was the one who told Storm Reaper the truth.

“Did you know that the experiment you went through ended up creating us?”

“I’m not stupid,” Storm Reaper spat. “Besides the Wind Ignis told me when he initially reached out to me. And I wanted nothing to do with him, and so he tried to kill me after that.”

“Yes, he did that,” The Light Ignis nodded. “But do you know what the experiment was called? They called it the Hanoi Project.”

Silence.

Ryoken and the Wind Ignis just watched that fight through the broadcast that came from the reporters, both of them silent.

“...Hanoi?” Storm Reaper whispered, and the Light Ignis spread his arms.

“Didn’t they tell you? Everything that happened to you… it was the Knights of Hanoi who started it. All of this can be traced back to them. And they got you to work together with them? That’s underhanded of them, I must say. Isn’t it, Revolver?”

Ryoken clenched his fist, but didn’t say a single word. What for? The Light Ignis - and Storm Reaper didn’t hear it either way.

And Storm Reaper just raised his head.

“You did not end your turn, Light Ignis.”

“Oh? Is that all you gonna say?”

“I have nothing to say to you,” Storm Reaper’s voice was cold. “After I am done with you, I will deal with the Knights. This information doesn’t change anything about this duel.”

~*~

So now there they were.

Storm Reaper glaring daggers at Ryoken, and Ryoken did not look away.

“The Light Ignis’ information to you was correct,” Ryoken said simply. “It was the Knights of Hanoi who kidnapped the six of you. It was the Knights of Hanoi who kept you there for six months.”

“That was not my question,” Storm Reaper hissed. “I asked - when were you going to tell me?”

Ryoken did not reply, which just made Storm Reaper give out a deep growl from his throat.

“Fine then. Duel me, Revolver. I will make you face your sins.”

“Very well. If that is what you want.”

After the Wind Ignis found out that how did Ryoken’s duel against Soulburner go, he called Ryoken a masochistic idiot. Either way, he knew that Soulburner was still itching for a fight, and Ryoken figured he is gonna have to give him a real fight one day. It was probably going to happen sooner or later. Either that, or one day Soulburner will just punch him out of nowhere because of all the frustration. Either options seemed equally likely.

He knew Storm Reaper was not the same.

He was way angrier, and way more vicious than Soulburner was. Soulburner’s anger was righteous fury, and pent up frustration.

Storm Reaper’s fury was destructive.

Every cell of Ryoken’s body was screaming at him not to do this. His survival instincts were actively rebelling against his thoughts.

And yet…

“I end my turn.”

Storm Reaper raised his eyebrows, before snarling.

“You think that is going to stop me? You seriously think?!”

“I don’t think anything. You heard me. I end my turn.”

It did not stop him.

He did not stop after one attack either, sending Ryoken flying away, his back hitting the wall, and he slumped down, his LP hitting 0.

“Stand up.”

Storm Reaper’s voice was sharp, and he hurried over, dragging Ryoken back to his feet.

“Stand up. Do it again. Do it  _ right.  _ Fight  _ back. _ ”

Ryoken stood on his wobbly legs, as Storm Reaper walked back to his previous position, fury still radiating from his form.

“Duel. You start this time, Revolver.”

He did start. He brought out Anesthrokket Dragon in attack position.

And ended his turn.

“Are you serious?” Storm Reaper snapped. “Do it right! I told you to do it right! You seriously think I’m going to stop this time? No, no I’m not! I am going to beat you over and over again, until you do it right! My turn. I draw!”

It was over again pretty fast, with Ryoken falling down, and Storm Reaper screaming in frustration.

“You… You  _ coward.  _ Facing your sins does  _ not  _ mean lying down and taking it! Stand up, Revolver. Stand up, and I’m going to keep attacking you until you do it like you are supposed to!”

The next duel ended quickly as well, and Ryoken found it hard to stand up.

His entire body was shaking, and his vision was starting to become blurry, and he just barely heard Storm Reaper demanding he stand up again.

Then he felt a sharp pain in his side, as he got kicked over.

“Stand up! Hear me, Revolver?! You are going to stand up and  _ give me the fight I want.  _ I want to  _ destroy  _ you, but  _ not like this.  _ I want you to do your best against me, and I  _ will  _ get it.”

Storm Reaper grabbed him and yanked him on his feet again, forcing him to look into his eyes - somewhere during their second duel, Ryoken had lost his helmet, and he was full of bruises, while Storm Reaper was still unscatched, his eye full of frustration and hatred.

“Why do you wear the eyepatch?”

“...huh?”

The question definitely took Storm Reaper off guard.

“When Blue Maiden knocked off your mask and when you confronted the Wind Ignis your right eye was covered, but ever since then, it’s your left eye. Did you just want to avoid resembling him that much? After all, his right eye is the bad one---”

“Shut the hell up, I am nothing like him!”

Storm Reaper screamed, pushing Ryoken away - and next Ryoken knew, the scythe materialized in Storm Reaper’s hand, and---

Sharp pain in his chest.

His whole body jerked as the blade hit through his chest.

With another fast, swift movement Storm Reaper removed the blade of the scythe from Ryoken’s chest, and Ryoken crashed to the ground.

There was no blood.

Obviously. It was all VR.

It still really,  _ really  _ hurt.

“Stand up, Revolver,” Storm Reaper hissed. “I told you I will not leave until I get the fight I want.”

Ryoken’s entire body heaved, and he looked up to Storm Reaper, and he saw.

He  _ saw _ .

He saw the way his face was frozen into fury, hatred and... 

Pain.

It was Ryoken, who was battered and broken, and yet when he looked at Storm Reaper’s face…

Ryoken forced himself to stand up, barely being able to stand upright, but he straightened his back as much as he could.

“...alright, Storm Reaper.”

Storm Reaper gritted his teeth, obviously not really believing Ryoken would fight back this time.

And he probably didn’t believe him until Ryoken’s first attack actually managed to take a hit from his Life Points.

Then Storm Reaper recoiled, shielding his face with his arms… but when he finally lowered his arms, he was  _ grinning. _

~*~

In the end did it really matter who won? Ryoken figured that neither of them really cared.

Especially as Storm Reaper got pretty roughed up himself, and Ryoken could feel that he was getting closer and closer to passing out - the adrenaline during their last duel kept him going, but it was slowly running out, and he was exhausted and in pain.

And Storm Reaper was on the ground, and  _ laughing. _

“For the love of… what took you so long, Revolver, huh? Did I really need to kick your ass five different ways to make you act up?” Ryoken didn’t reply, and Storm Reaper just snorted, and pushed himself up, so he could look at Ryoken. “Why the hell did that experiment go down the way it did?”

“Dr Kogami, the one who ran the experiment believed that it is only through duelling that free will can be learnt, and it is the best way for an AI to learn from,” Ryoken said, in an almost monotone voice. “He wanted a controlled environment with enough motivation that… well. That you all would keep going.”

“Huh. I take you are not this  _ Dr Kogami,  _ then. Where is he?”

“He is dead.”

There was still a sting in his heart when he said those words.

He wondered if it would ever go away.

Storm Reaper hissed out again.

“Fine, okay. Then who the hell are you, Revolver? His second-in-command? Some nice handy scientist who was always by his side?”

There was bitterness in Storm Reaper’s voice, and Ryoken didn’t look at him.

“I’m Ryoken Kogami. I am his son.”

Silence.

“His son.”

“Yes.”

“Just how old  _ are  _ you, Revolver?”

“Eighteen.”

Silence.

“You son of a bitch, you were a damn  _ kid  _ when the Incident happened, then!” Something hit Ryoken in the head, which made him wince, before he looked that way - and apparently Storm Reaper literally took off his shoe and threw it at Ryoken’s head. “Why the hell would you just stand there and let me beat you up, though?”

“You wanted to fight someone, and the Knights of Hanoi  _ are  _ responsible for the Incident,” Ryoken said in a dry voice. “Would it have stopped you if you knew I was not one of the scientists? I still lead the Knights of Hanoi, so all in all, I take responsibility for our actions.”

“That’s bullshit. You are just a masochistic weirdo, aren’t you?”

“You didn’t answer. Would it have stopped you?”

Storm Reaper huffed.

“Probably not. You are still an asshole who deserved to be beaten up.”

“You needed to vent your anger towards the Knights of Hanoi, and here I was. There is no deeper meaning to it, so don’t look for it,” Ryoken’s hand was shaking, and his vision was starting to be blurry, as exhaustion was catching up with him. “See you later, Storm Reaper.”

Then he logged out.

And as soon as he did, he promptly passed out.

~*~

Once Ryoken woke up, he was greeted with a familiar voice.

“You locked me out of your duel disk.”

His eyes finally focused, and he saw a person standing next to his bed - with multi-toned green hair that was messy, and in a ponytail, an outfit that was more fitting to a goth pirate than to anyone reasonable, full with a dark green longcoat, and a frilly shirt.

And an eyepatch, with his uncovered eye being a shade of light purple.

“...Windy…?”

“Hah! You called me by my name! I would be delighted if you wouldn’t have done it after effectively locking me out of your duel disk. And after getting yourself kicked to the curb by Storm Reaper. Why the hell would you do that?”

“He needed to vent his frustrations. And if you had been there he would have killed you.”

“He almost killed  _ you! _ ”

“Well... “ Ryoken shrugged, while sitting up on his bed, and couldn’t help but wince a little. Being stabbed with a scythe was actually not perfectly harmless, not even in VR. “He did not. Besides you and I, we almost killed each other before, and here you are, fussing over me.”

“I’m not fussing!” Windy flailed with his arms. “I’m just… look what you made me do! I finally got myself a SOLtiS body! Look at this!”

“How did you get on the boat in the first place?”

“I have my ways,” Windy said with a smug smirk. “Anyway, I am here now. What do you say?”

“I say that you could have just came into my computer even as you were locked out of my duel disk.”

“Well, that is nowhere near  _ pointed  _ enough,” Windy pointed at Ryoken. “I needed to make a  _ point.  _ And the point is being made here now.”

“Oh, is there?” Ryoken raised his eyebrows. “An what would that point be?”

“Stop being a masochistic idiot.”

Ryoken chuckled, closing his eyes a bit.

“He pretty much called me that too.”

“Well, I guess I got a few things from him, after all.”

“Don’t tell him that.”

“He already wants to kill me, how much worse could it be?”

Ryoken felt the bed move under him a bit, as Windy sat down, and Ryoken opened his eyes, so he could look at the Ignis again.

“Things can always get worse. Especially if we make bad decisions.”

“Wow. Aren’t you Mr Sunshine. Would it kill you to be a bit more optimistic? Like say, oh, Windy, it’ll be fine, he will surely calm down, or even be a bit nicer to me, like you could say that don’t worry Windy, I will not let it happen, or mayb---”

Ryoken didn’t let him finish, because he just reached out to grab Windy’s face, dragging him close, and pressed their lips together.

For a few moments Windy was frozen, before kissing back with such intensity, that Ryoken fell to his back on his bed, with Windy landing on top of him.

Which made Ryoken give out a painful groan, as his chest was still  _ hurting. _

“Whoops,” Windy muttered, as he pulled his head back, but only barely pushed himself up from Ryoken. “That’s what you get for letting yourself be beaten up.”

“Thanks for the empathy.”

Windy frowned.

“I don’t get why you would let him do that.”

“Humans are unpredictable in a way not even your free will can replicate.”

“Wow. Asshole.”

“I’m not saying that to insult you,” Ryoken said, pushing a strand of Windy’s hair behind his ear, and the way Windy’s cheeks reddened made Ryoken smirk a little. “We are just different. That is all.”

~*~

After that, things went more quiet - Storm Reaper occasionally showed up, but didn’t go near any of the Ignis. According to the Hanoi’s data, he was mostly collecting other bounties, hunting down hackers and the like.

Ryoken sometimes met him. He would just appear next to Ryoken, and just comment on whatever was going on in Link VRAINS at the time. Comment on the duels going on, making snide comments on stupid avatar choices. (Not that Storm Reaper had any right to judge, if you were to ask him.)

Mostly, he seemed to approach him when Windy was not around. Not in Ryoken’s duel disk, and not lurking in a SOLtiS body.

Similarly Windy only visited him when he wasn’t talking with Storm Reaper.

It’s like both of them were avoiding each other - which made sense from Windy, but not from Storm Reaper. All signs pointed before that he wanted to kill Windy, but the facts remained that this what he seemed to be doing.

“I want you to do something for me.”

He said that to Ryoken one day out of the blue, and there was something in the tone of his voice that sent chills down on Ryoken’s spine.

“What?”

“I want you to visit me in the real world.”

“...why?”

“Because I want to know the truth,” Storm Reaper snapped. “I have another avatar I use to talk with family and friends and doctors, and they all tell me I can get better. I don’t trust it. I want you to get there, and check it out for real. See if I can get better.”

“...okay. I can do that.”

“Great. One more thing, though,” Storm Reaper grabbed Ryoken’s arm, looking into his eyes, unflinching. “If I can’t… if this is what I will always be, I want you to pull the plug.”

“...what…?”

“Look at me!” Storm Reaper snapped, his grip was almost painful on Ryoken’s arm. “This is all I have now! I can’t… I don’t have the real life. Even the Ignis can walk around in human bodies now, and you can come here and go out and everyone else can, everyone  _ except me.  _ And I don’t want to be just a bunch of numbers forever, plugged in, unable to step out. So, if there is no chance of me recovering… I want you to end it. That’s it. That’s all I want.”

“Why me…?”

“Who else?” He let out a bitter laugh. “Who else would do it, Revolver?”

~*~

Ryoken went to the hospital with Baira.

She was his ticket in. It was easy to hack the identification so nobody would realise she was a criminal - at least not until they were long gone. And Ryoken just went there as her protegé. Looking after interesting cases.

And this case was an interesting one indeed.

In a way.

This was the first time Ryoken had seen him in the real life - he remembered his father slowly withering away in his bed, and somehow, inexplicably, Storm Reaper looked even  _ worse. _

His hair was obviously shaved off completely for surgeries, and it was still short as it was growing back - his skin covered with burn marks, his body extremely pale and all the tubes connected to him.

Tubes, and machines, and the headset over his face.

He looked at Baira as she looked over a tablet to check his status, her expression growing more and more grim, before she looked at him.

She didn’t even need to say anything.

He knew.

“Unless a miracle happens, it’s doubtful his body will ever be strong enough for him to wake up,” Baira said softly. “As long as he is logged in to Link VRAINS, his mind can stay active, and he can live there. But his body is too damaged to be able to keep him even conscious outside of virtual reality. The technology takes most of the toll off from his body, and keeps the bodily functions going enough so his consciousness can be kept online but this was a last ditch effort to save him. If he were to log out, odds are that he would die.”

Ryoken was silent, as he sat down next to the bed, looking at the switch on the side of the headset.

“...would he feel pain?”

“Unlikely,” Baira’s voice was soft. “He wouldn’t be aware enough to feel pain.”

Ryoken took Storm Reaper’s hand softly - his hand was warm, but so thin, and Ryoken’s heart was beating in his throat.

Then he put his finger on the switch.

~*~

He was standing on top of one of the secluded, tall buildings of Link VRAINS, looking over the busy virtual world, when a familiar figure appeared next to him.

“So. Got it done?”

Ryoken was silent.

He could have lied.

He probably should have lied.

“Yeah. I visited you in the real world.”

“So assuming that you are here and  _ I _ am still alive I trust that this means they actually said the truth and I can recover, huh? That is unexpected.”

Ryoken stayed silent, and did not look at him.

“...Revolver?”

He still didn’t look at him.

“Ryoken  _ fucking  _ Kogami, look at me!”

Ryoken turned to look at him, and he felt his heart drop into his stomach, when he saw the desperation on Storm Reaper’s face.

“Tell me. Tell me it isn’t true. Tell me you didn’t fuck me over.”

“I’m sorry.”

Storm Reaper let out a scream, as he summoned his scythe again, and Ryoken braced himself for the sharp pain again.

Instead he got a different kind of pain, as Storm Reaper hit him with the blunter end of the scythe instead, causing him to fall over.

Then Storm Reaper grabbed onto Ryoken’s jacket, yanking him to his feet, slamming his back against the wall.

“I told you! I told you I don’t want this! I want my life back, and if I can’t have it back, then I… I…”

Ryoken said a name, whispering Storm Reaper’s  _ real  _ name, which made Storm Reaper shiver, his eye swelling up with tears.

“Why… why wouldn’t you… why…”

His voice was breaking, as Ryoken just raised his hands, pulling Storm Reaper closer to his chest. Storm Reaper clinged to his jacket, hitting Ryoken’s shoulder and chest with his fist, his entire body shaking.

Then his entire body eased up, as he buried his face to Ryoken’s neck, his entire body shaking ever more, as the tears broke to the surface.

~*~

“Dunno, isn’t it possible to… let him enter a body like this too?”

Windy asked this once they were out in Den City - Windy clinging on Ryoken’s arm like some horrible arm candy nobody asked for, and one that for some reason or another, Ryoken was not flinging off from himself.

“Remember what I said about humans and AIs being different?” Ryoken asked. “We might all be data inside Link VRAINS, but our data is fundamentally different. Besides Link VRAINS has strict measures to avoid things like that happening.”

“Things like what?”

“Body surfing,” Ryoken said in a dry tone. “Imagine the chaos if anyone could just enter any other body. Or a bug would cause two people logging out the same time waking up in the wrong body because of a wrong gateway… if you log in from outside, you can only go out the same way you went in. You can enter a SOLtiS body because… technically you never  _ went  _ in.”

Windy hummed, leaning his head by Ryoken’s shoulder, not letting him go.

“You look disappointed. You want him to try to hit you with a car out here as payback? Isn’t it enough that he wants to kill you in the network you want to give him more leeway?”

“You are mean, like you don’t want him to get better,” Windy scrunched his nose. “You do. Besides, he hadn’t been attacking me for a while. I think he is avoiding me.”

“It’s possible.”

Ryoken knew it couldn’t have been easy to be Windy either - everyone else was either partnered up with their origins, or extremely close to them either way.

All Windy had as a partner was Ryoken.

And Ryoken knew he was probably less than an ideal alternative.

“On the plus side - if he stays inside odds are he can live on longer. So you have all the time in the world to sort things out even after I am gone.”

Windy jerked away, so he could look at Ryoken with a widened eye, and a shocked expression.

“Why would you say that?” He asked, his voice running higher than usual. “That’s just wow, killing the damn mood! And the mood was already down! You killed the mood again, which would be impressive, if you wouldn’t suck so damn much, Ryoken Kogami. You  _ suck.” _

“You  _ are  _ aware that I am a mortal human being, right?”

“Yeah, well, shut up. That is my opinion about that. But what about you and him? I mean he tried to kill you and then he asked you to kill him… now what?”

“I don’t know. I guess things are complicated.”

Windy snorted, leaning his head back to Ryoken’s shoulder.

“You humans always overcomplicate everything.”

“You Ignis can do that too.”

“Um, false. Average Ignis doesn’t overcomplicate things. Lightning Georg who is sulking in the hot dog truck and overcomplicates three thousand things daily is an outlier and should not be counted.”

Ryoken closed his eyes and pretended not to have heard those words.

For his own sanity probably.

~*~

They somehow fell back into the previous routine with Storm Reaper, with just the bounty hunter occasionally swooping down next to Ryoken, while he was out, looking over the network.

(Between Windy and Storm Reaper both orbiting around him, he found himself very… lonely sometimes when neither of them were there. He tried not to think of that one too much.)

“I am still pissed at you.”

Storm Reaper said that out of the blue one day, and Ryoken just looked at him, and didn’t say a word as a response.

So Storm Reaper just continued.

“Like… what the hell am I supposed to do? Run around, do these random jobs and watch this virtual world? People logging in and out knowing that I never can? I am basically already a ghost.”

“You are alive.”

Ryoken interrupted him and now it was Storm Reaper’s turn to be quiet, and Ryoken just looked back, letting their eyes meet.

“As long as you are alive, does it really matter where? Besides as time passes…”

“If you say I might get better, I will stab you again.”

The corner of Ryoken’s mouth twitched, before shaking his head.

“No. But maybe there will be some kind of technology… maybe similar to a SOLtiS. Technology advances day by day rapidly. It would be foolish of you to give up.”

“Or maybe you are pulling things out of your ass because you don’t want me to ask someone else the same thing I asked from you.”

“You are right. I don’t want that. I want you to live.”

Storm Reaper looked at him, and stepped closer to Ryoken, starting to fidget with Ryoken’s jacket.

“So. You and the Wind Ignis.”

“That’s complicated.”

The answer was a snort, as Storm Reaper rolled his eyes - before raising his head, their faces close to each other.

“And what about this?”

His voice was almost a whisper, and Ryoken tilted his head forward.

“That is complicated too.”

Storm Reaper rolled his eyes again, as he pulled off Ryoken’s helmet, throwing it away.

“That helmet is ridiculous.”

“Says the one who looks like an edgy cowboy.”

Ryoken also pushed off Storm Reaper’s hat, who just snorted dismissively.

“Yeah, shut up.”

And then he leaned forward to kiss him, holding onto him with an intensity it was almost  _ painful -  _ the way his fingers dug into Ryoken’s shoulders, the way he  _ bit  _ down on Ryoken’s lips, the way he kissed Ryoken like he wanted to devour him, like if this was just the one and only time he was allowed to kiss Ryoken.

And Ryoken didn’t exactly want to let go of him either.

~*~

It was awkward, Ryoken figured, especially as none of them talked about it. It just happened like that.

Sometimes it was Windy - in his duel disk, on his arm in the real world, either in a SOLtiS or a monstrous form, all clingy nuisance.

Sometimes it was Storm Reaper, lurking around him, much more withdrawn, but when he  _ was  _ clinging, then it was desperate, possessive, not wanting to let go.

The two of them seemed to pretend the other did not exist.

Ryoken wondered how long was this feasible without the two of them needing to face everything that happened.

(“You weren’t yourself,” he told Windy, and Windy just gave a wry smile.

“I know. I still did it.”)

(“He was not himself,” he told Storm Reaper, and he just let out a dark laughter.

“I know. He still did it.”)

But now, for now…

He was willing to let himself be lost, no matter which one of them was by his side.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! The name Storm Reaper comes from Immicolia who allowed me to use that for this fic


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